THE  LIBRARY  OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF 

NORTH  CAROLINA 


THE  COLLECTION  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINIANA 


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UNIVERSITY  OF  N.C.  AT  CHAPEL  HILL 


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THE  NECESSITY 

OF 

PRESERVING  THE  MEMORIALS   OF  THE 
PAST  AND  OF  TRANSMITTING  TO 
POSTERITY  A  JUST  AND  IM- 
PARTIAL HISTORY  OF 
NORTH  CAROLINA. 


AN  ADDRESS 


Col.  WM.  H.  S.  BURGWYN, 

Delivered  before  the  Alumni  Association  of  the  University  of 

North  Carolina,  June  4,  1S90,  in  Memorial 

Hall  at  Chapel  Hill. 


Published  by  the  Alumni  Association. 


f 


RALEIGH : 

EDWARDS  &  BROUGHTON,  POWER  PRINTERS  AND  BINDERS. 
1890. 


/V 


THE  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  THE  MEMO- 
RIALS OF  THE  PAST  AND  OF  TRANSMITTING 
TO  POSTERITY  A  JUST  AND  IMPARTIAL  HIS- 
TORY OF  NORTH  CAROLINA. 

Mr.  President,  Young  Gentlemen  of  the  PliilantJiropic  and  Dia- 
lectic Societies,  Ladies  and  Qentlejnen  : 

IN  1S63  Dr.  Haven,  in  his  inaugural  address  as  President  of 
Michigan  University,  used  these  words:  "The  Univer- 
sity of  Michigan  is  the  oldest,  largest  and  most  flourishing  of 
the  class  of  institutions  that  may  rightly  be  regarded  as  State 
Universities."  Prof.  Herbert  B.  Adams,  of  the  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  in  his  recent  monograph  on  "  The  Study  of  History 
in  American  Colleges  and  Universities,"  says,  "  This  statement 
was  true  for  America  in  1863,  and  it  is  true  to  day." 

Was  it  true  in  1863?  Is  it  true  to-day?  To  prove  his  asser- 
tion. Prof.  Adams  relies  upon  the  facts,  first,  that  in  the  ordi- 
nance of  1787  providing  for  the  government  of  the  great 
Northwestern  Territory  it  was  declared  that  "schools  and  the 
means  of  education  should  forever  be  encouraged ;"  and 
secondly,  that  in  the  Act  of  Congress  of  i804-'5  fo^"  ^he  organi- 
zation of  the  Territory  of  Michigan  there  was  reserved  a 
"township  of  land  for  the  support  of  a  University." 

Our  surprise  at  so  boastful  a  claim  on  the  part  of  President 
Haven  will  not  be  lessened  when  we  are  told  that  no  steps  wefe 
taken  by  the  territorial  government  towards  University 
organization  until  the  year  18 17,  when  an  act  was  passed 
establishing  the  "University  of  Michigan;"  but  to  fill  the 
thirteen  chairs  provided  for,  there  were  only  two  professors 
elected — the  President  filling  seven  of  them,  and  the  Roman 
Catholic  Bishop  of  the  Territory  the  remaining  j^z^. 

I  can  make  no  stronger  argument  in  support  of  my  plea  here 


4  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  ^c. 

to-day  for  the  institution  of  a  separate  chair  of  American  His- 
tory and  Political  Science,  at  Chapel  Hill,  than  the  above 
remarkable  statement  of  President  Haven.  Remarkable  as 
emanating  from  such  a  source;  surprising  in  its  exhibition  of 
unfairness,  I  would  not  say  ignorance,  on  the  subject  he  was 
treating. 

Listen,  friends  and  fellow  citizens!  In  1755  the  Assembly 
of  North  Carolina  passed  an  act  appropriating  ;^6,ooo,  equal 
to  $150,000  in  the  money  of  to-day,  for  the  endowment  of  a 
public  school  for  the  Province,  and  resolved  "that  under  a 
sense  of  the  many  advantages  that  will  arise  to  the  Province 
from  giving  our  youth  a  liberal  education,  whether  considered 
in  a  moral,  religious  or  political  light,  a  public  school  or  semi- 
nary of  learning  be  erected  and  properly  endowed,  and  for 
effecting  the  same  the  sum  of  i^6,ooo  already  appropriated  for 
that  purpose  be  properly  applied." 

But  earlier  than  this.  In  his  will,  dated  July  5,  1754,  Col. 
James  Innes,  of  the  Cape  Fear,  and  at  the  time  Commander- 
in-chief  of  the  expedition  to  the  Ohio  against  the  "French 
and  their  Indians,"  gave  his  plantation.  Point  Pleasant,  a  con- 
siderable personal  estate,  his  library  and  i^ioo  sterling  "for 
the  use  of  a  free  school  for  the  benefit  of  the  youth  of  North 
Carolina."  This  bequest,  says  Col.  Saunders,  was  the  first 
private  bequest  of  the  kind  in  the  history  of  the  State. 

But  more  remarkable  still  was  the  action  of  the  Halifax 
Congress  of  November,  1776.  This  Congress  adopted  a  Con- 
stitution and  Bill  of  Rights  for  the  people  of  North  Carolina. 
It  came  together  on  the  eve  of  a  great  civil  war  to  deliberate 
upon  the  most  solemn,  delicate  and  difificult  of  all  human 
undertakings.  The  time  of  its  meeting  was  memorable. 
Rejoicings  for  the  victory  of  Moore's  Creek  were  still  filling  the 
air;  the  skirmishings  at  Lexington  and  Concord  and  the  battle 
of  Bunker's  Hill  had  taken  place  the  April  and  June  of  the  pre- 
vious year.     The  Mecklenburg  and  Philadelphia  Declarations 


NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  &^c.  5 

of  Independence  had  been  adopted,  and  the  rule  of  the  last 
royal  governor  had  ceased  in  North  Carolina  ;  all  was  confu- 
sion, uncertainty,  and  the  ship  of  state  was  without  a  pilot; 
and  yet,  the  forty-first  section  of  this  Constitution  is  in  these 
words,  "  A  school  or  schools  shall  be  established,  and  all  useful 
learning  shall  be  duly  encouraged  and  promoted  in  one  or  more 
universities." 

We  can  but  pause  in  reverential  admiration  for  the  lofty 
patriotism,  noble  purposes  and  sublime  self-reliance  of  these 
men,  who,  in  the  midst  of  the  weighty  responsibilities,  per- 
plexities and  dangers  of  the  time,  while  preparing  the  State 
for  defence,  could  yet  bethink  themselves  of  the  importance  of 
education  and  bind  the  new  government  to  provide  for  it. 

Had  Professor  Adams  been  aware  of  this  clause  in  the  North 
Carolina  Constitution  of  1776,  and  known  that  in  1789  the 
Legislature,  as  its  first  action  as  a  member  of  the  new  United 
States,  proceeded  to  carry  out  the  noble  resolution  of  the 
Halifax  Congress,  and  established  a  University  for  the  higher 
education  of  the  youth  of  the  State,  he  could  not  have  endorsed 
President  Haven's  unsustained  assumption. 

But  where  does  the  fault  lie? 

Have  we  in  North  Carolina  done  our  part  in  this  matter? 
Have  we  seen  to  it  that  such  ignorance  of  our  noble  past 
should  not  prevail  among  educated  people? 

Do  we,  ourselves,  realize  what  a  heritage  we  have? 

When  the  world  reads  of  Lexington  and  Concord  and 
Bunker's  Hill  and  Princeton  and  Trenton  and  Saratoga  and 
Yorktown,  do  they  read  of  Alamance,  of  Moore's  Creek,  of  the 
Cowpens,  of  Ramsour's  Mill,  of  Elizabethtown,  of  King's 
Mountain  or  of  Guilford  Court  House? 

When  it  hears  of  the  destruction  of  the  tea  in  Boston  Har- 
bor by  men  disguised  and  operating  in  the  night,  does  it  hear 
of  the  far  more  daring  deed  of  Colonels  Ashe  and  Waddell  and 
their   associates,  who,  eight   years  before,  in  broad  daylight, 


6  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  dr>c. 

with  a  British  man-of-war  threatening  them,  the  proclamation 
of  the  royal  Governor  denouncing  them,  demanded  of  that 
Governor  (Tryon)  that  he  desist  from  all  attempts  to  execute 
the  Stamp  Act,  and  under  threats  of  burning  the  Governor's 
Palace,  himself  and  the  Stamp  Master  (Houston)  as  well, 
forced  the  Governor  to  surrender  the  latter,  whom  they  com- 
pelled to  take  an  oath  at  the  public  market-house  not  to  exe- 
cute his  office. 

"  These  are  deeds  which  should  not  pass  away, 
And  names  that  must  not  wither,  the'  the  earth 
Forgets  her  empires  with  a  just  decay, 
The  enslavers  and  enslaved,  their  death  and  birth." 

The  world  unites  in  homage  to  Washington,  Greene,  Franklin, 
Adams,  Hamilton,  and  well  it  may.  But  how  many  recall  the 
fact  that  in  response  to  the  appeal  of  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
for  troops  to  resist  the  French  and  their  Indians  on  the  borders 
of  Virginia  in  i754-'55,  that  North  Carolina  enlisted  more 
men  to  engage  in  that  war  than  Virginia  herself,  and  that  a 
North  Carolina  soldier,  Col.  James  Innes,  was  selected  by  the 
Governor  of  Virginia,  over  all  competitors,  including  George 
Washington,  to  take  the  command  in  chief  of  the  expedition. 

Serving  in  this  campaign  under  Innes  was  another  North 
Carolina  soldier,  destined  to  achieve  even  greater  distinction 
than  his  superior  ;  who,  but  for  his  untimely  death  (April, 
1773,)  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-nine  just  before  the  breaking 
out  of  the  Revolutionary  war,  might  have  been  selected  in- 
stead of  Washington,  to  command  the  Continental  armies, 
such  was  his  reputation  as  an  accomplished  soldier  and  reso- 
lute patriot. 

As  a  North  Carolinian,  I  express  my  gratification  that  the 
eminent  services  of  this  distinguished  son  of  the  State — Gen. 
Hugh  Waddell — have  not  been  permitted  to  remain  unchron- 
icled,  and  that  a  descendant,   worthy  scion  of  such  a  stock, 


NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  &^c.  / 

has  perpetuated  the  deeds  and  character  of  his  great  ancestor 
in  a  manner  worthy  of  the  subject  and  the  time. 

There  is  John  Ashe,  "  the  most  chivalrous  hero  of  our  Revo- 
lution." Gen.  Francis  Nash,  Colonels  Buncombe  and  Irwin, 
the  heroes  of  Germantown,  who  gave  their  lives  on  that  bloody 
field  and  saved  the  American  army  from  defeat.  Lillington 
and  Caswell,  who  commanded  at  Moore's  Creek ;  Sevier, 
Shelby,  Cleveland,  McDowell  and  Winston,  of  King's  Moun- 
tain fame.  Thomas  Brown,  who  commanded  at  the  brilliant 
affair  of  Elizabethtown,  which  ended  the  Tory  power  in 
Bladen.  Gen.  William  R.  Davie,  justly  called  the  father  of 
the  University,  who,  with  Gen.  Joseph  Graham,  in  September, 
1780,  so  gallantly  resisted  the  entrance  of  Cornwallis  into 
Charlotte  town.  Robert  Howe,  the  wit,  the  scholar  and  the 
soldier,  who,  with  Cornelius  Harnett,  enjoys  the  distinction  of 
being  excepted  from  the  pardon  proclamation  of  the  British 
General  (May  5th,  1776). 

Gen.  James  Moore,  appointed,  in  1776,  by  Congress,  Com- 
mander-in-Chief of  the  Southern  Department,  but  in  whose 
death  soon  thereafter  there  was  lost  the  "  first  military 
genius  of  the  Province."  Gen.  Grififith  Rutherford,  after 
whom  Rutherford  County  is  named.  Gen.  William  L.  David- 
son, killed  at  Cowan's  Ford  (1781),  resisting  Cornwallis'  pas- 
sage of  the  Catawba  in  his  pursuit  of  Greene,  and  whose  name 
and  worth  are  perpetuated  in  Davidson  College.  Such  names, 
such  deeds,  should  be  as  household  words  with  our  people. 

Ought  our  youth  not  to  be  told  of  John  Harvey,  of  Perqui- 
mans County,  the  Moderator  of  the  Provincial  Congress,  than 
whom  no  braver  or  wiser  man  has  ever  borne  a  part  in  the  con- 
duct of  affairs  in  North  Carolina. 

Of  Cornelius  Harnett,  the  pride  of  the  Cape  Fear,  the  Samuel 
Adams  of  North  Carolina  ;  excepted  from  the  proclamation  of 
pardon,  at  last  he  is  captured,  thrown  into  prison,  his  health 
and  fortune  wrecked  in  the  storms  which  assailed  his  country. 


8  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  S^c. 

he  dies  in  his  imprisonment,  childless  and  forlorn,  leaving  as 
his  epitaph  these  immortal  lines : 

"  Slave  to  no  sect,  he  took  no  private  road, 
But  looked  through   Nature,  up  to  Nature's  God." 

No  North  Carolinian  should  fail  to  read  the  eloquent  pan- 
egyric on  this  great  patriot  by  the  Hon.  Geo.  Davis,  of  Wil- 
mington. 

And  who  hears,  in  these  days,  of  Edward  Mosely,  the  Sir 
Matthew  Hale  of  North  Carolina  ;  the  incorruptible  Judge  in 
a  time  of  general  demoralization  ;  the  great  Tribune  of  the 
people's  cause  as  against  the  encroachments  of  the  crown  and 
the  Royal  Governors  ?  The  foremost  lawyer  of  his  day,  who, 
as  early  as  1716,  in  a  formal  resolution  told  the  Governor  and 
his  Council  "  that  the  impressing  of  the  inhabitants  of  their 
property  under  the  pretence  of  its  being  for  the  public  service, 
without  authority  from  the  Assembly,  was  unwarrantable,  and 
a  great  infringement  of  the  liberty  of  the  subject."  As  has 
been  well  said,  "The  name  of  Mosely  will  never  be  without 
honor  in  North  Carolina  as  long  as  time  and  gratitude  shall 
live." 

But  if  we  owe  it  to  ourselves  to  rescue  from  oblivion  the 
names  and  deeds  of  such  men,  how  much  more  incumbent  it 
is  that  we  should  refute  the  slanders  and  misrepresentations 
that  have  been  cast  upon  our  State.  Among  the  many  who 
have,  either  through  ignorance  or  prejudice,  denied  us  our  just 
meed  of  praise  on  the  one  hand,  or  perverted  history  to  our 
prejudice  on  the  other,  there  is  one  historian  who  treats  us 
fairly.  "  Are  there  any,"  says  Bancroft,  "  who  doubt  man's 
capacity  for  self-government,  let  them  study  the  history  of 
North  Carolina." 

There  is  probably  no  part  of  our  history  that  is  less  under- 
stood,  more  perverted  to  our  discredit,  and  less  credit  awarded 
where  deserved,  than  the  period  from  1663  to  1775. 


NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  &^c.  9 

THE   COLONIAL   PERIOD. 

That  such  injustice  will  not  forever  be  done  us  in  histories 
of  those  times  I  am  led  to  believe,  chiefly  through  the  labors 
of  one  in  whose  bosom  love  for  the  State,  pride  in  her  record 
and  confidence  in  her  great  future,  burns  as  fiercely  as  did  the 
love  of  freedom  in  the  men  of  the  Revolution. 

In  his  youth,  serving  his  country  on  the  battle-fields  of  the 
late  war,  enduring  hardships,  sustaining  bodily  injuries  from 
the  effects  of  which  his  latter  days  are  spent  in  pain  and 
debility,  he  is  devoting  the  strength  still  left  him,  and  the 
hours  of  cessation  from  pain,  to  the  noble  purpose  of  preserv- 
ing the  memorials  of  the  past,  and  of  transmitting  to  posterity 
a  just  and  faithful  history  of  those  times. 

Until  called  by  his  people  to  his  present  office  of  honor,  he 
served  them,  after  the  late  war,  in  the  high  place  as  leader  of 
public  opinion  through  the  public  press. 

In  reference  to  this  work,  which  his  official  position  imposed 
on  him,  he  says,  "  that  for  seven  years  he  has  devoted  him- 
self to  it,  and  has  done  the  best  he  could,  without  reward  or 
the  hope  of  reward,  and  solely  because  of  the  love  he  bears  to 
North  Carolina  and  her  people." 

Such  are  the  words  of  a  patriot ;  and  I  trust  I  offend  not 
against  the  proprieties  of  this  occasion  in  thus  publicly  express- 
ing my  humble  opinion  of  the  work  done  and  the  good  accom- 
plished for  North  Carolina  by  the  Hon.  Wm.  L.  Saunders, 

Says  Col.  Saunders  ;  "  Under  the  rule  of  the  Lords  Proprie- 
tors the  people  of  North  Carolina  were  confessedly  '  the  freest 
of  the  free,'  and  their  legal  status  in  this  respect  was  due,  in 
their  opinion,  to  the  royal  charter  under  which  the  colony  had 
its  rise  and  got  its^growth.  To  them  Magma  Charta,  the  Great 
Charter,  was  not  the  one  granted  by  King  John  to  the  English 
Barons  at  Runnymede,  but  the  one  granted  by  Charles  II.  to 
the  Lords  Proprietors  of  the  Province  of  North  Carolina." 


lO  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  &-c. 

In  addition  to  this,  when  we  consider  that  the  governors  of 
North  Carolina,  both  under  the  proprietary  and  royal  govern- 
ments, were  not  natives,  but,  for  the  most  part,  needy  adven- 
turers who  came  over  here  to  make  their  fortunes  at  the 
expense  of  the  colonies,  we  can  understand  why  Culpepper 
rebelled  against  the  usurper  Miller  (1677),  and  not  wonder  that 
Governors  Jenkins,  and  Miller,  and  Eastchurch,  and  Seth 
Sothel — a  lord  proprietor  himself — and  Glover,  and  Hyde,  and 
Burrington  were  turned  out  of  ofifice  by  the  people,  until  it 
became  such  a  common  thing  that  the  Governor  of  Virginia 
(Spottswood)  said,  "  the  North  Carolinians  were  so  used  to 
turning  out  their  Governors  that  they  thought  they  had  the 
right  to  do  so." 

The  theory  of  the  British  Crown  was  that  the  colonies  were 
only  for  the  benefit  of  the  mother  country;  that  the  colonies 
had  neither  rights  nor  interests  that  the  Crown,  or  the  mother 
country,  must  regard.  The  people,  on  the  other  hand,  thought 
they  possessed  rights  that  not  only  the  Governor,  but  the  King 
himself,  was  bound  to  respect.  After  thirty  years  of  royal  rule, 
the  Governor  wrote  to  the  Lords  of  the  Board  of  Trade  that 
the  Assembly  held  that  their  Charter  still  subsisted,  and  that 
it  bound  the  King  as  well  as  the  people.  As  has  been  well 
said:  "All  the  so-called  rebellions  and  disturbances  arose  from 
the  efforts  of  the  people  to  resist  illegal  and  usurped  authority. 

Culpepper  opposed  a  drunkard  who  tried  to  act  as  Governor 
without  credentials.  The  Cary  rebellion  was  resistance  to 
tyrannical  invasion  of  religious  freedom.  The  many  acts  of 
resistance  against  Everard  and  the  hot-headed  Burrington  were 
because  they  endeavored  to  act  as  despotic  kings,  to  control 
the  General  Assembly  and  the  judiciary. 

The  many  collisions  between  the  people  and  the  courts  were 
caused  by  the  attempts  of  the  chief  justices  to  exercise  powers 
contrary  to  the  rights  of  the  litigants.  The  people  steadily 
resisted  all  efforts   by    governors,    judges   and   councillors  to 


NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  &'c.  II 

make  them  pay  their  quit-rents  in  sterh'ng  money  instead  of 
"proclamation  money"  (paper  money).  They  claimed  the 
right  to  pay  rents  in  "  proclamation  money,"  or,  if  they  pre- 
ferred, in  commodities  at  rated  values,  and  deliverable  at  their 
homes.  Governors  Johnston  and  Dobbs  tried  to  force  deliv- 
ery at  points  convenient  to  the  government,  but  "  the  people 
resisted,  overawed  the  courts  and  beat  their  officers." 

Governor  Johnston  tried  to  reduce  the  representation  of  the 
"Albemarle  counties,"  and  employed  the  expedient  of  summon- 
ing the  Assembly  to  meet  in  the  extreme  southern  part  of  the 
province,  at  a  time  inconvenient  to  the  Albemarle  planters,  in 
order  to  carry  his  point  in  their  absence.  The  people  refused 
to  recognize  his  Assembly,  denied  the  validity  of  its  acts,  and 
lived  six  years  in  open  defiance  of  his  government,  without 
paying  taxes,  without  courts  and  without  representatives  in 
his  General  Assembly.  Was  there  ever  a  similar  instance  of 
resistance  to  oppression  ? 

Governors  Dobbs  and  Tryon,  under  instructions  from  the 
Crown,  tried  to  pass  court  laws,  which  the  people  regarded  as 
t3'rannical,  and  preferred  no  courts  to  bad  courts. 

Fanning  and  others,  carpet-baggers,  charged  extortionate 
fees,  and  sheriffs  seized  property  for  taxes,  which  could  not  be 
paid  because  specie  was  not  be  had  and  paper  money  issues 
were  forbidden.  The  Regulators  arose  by  the  thousands,  and 
the  War  of  the  Regulation  began. 

WAR   OF   THE   REGULATION. 

This  movement  commenced  at  the  August  session,  1766,  of 
Orange  County  Court,  and  ended  in  defeat  and  slaughter  at 
the  battle  of  Alamance,  May  16,  1771. 

On  the  day  before  the  battle  the  Regulators,  numbering 
probably  two  thousand  men,  under  no  leadership,  without  cav- 
alry or  artillery,  many  even  without  arms  or  ammunition,  had 
assembled  on  the  banks  of  the  Alamance. 


12  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  &^c. 

Gov.  Tryon,  with  some  ten  or  eleven  hundred  soldiers,  with 
cavalry  and  artillery,  commanded  by  Colonels  Ashe,  Leach, 
Caswell,  Hinton,  Thompson,  Bryan  and  Craig,  camped  near 
them.  At  six  o'clock  in  the  afternoon  the  Regulators  sent  a 
petition  to  the  Governor  "  signed  in  behalf  of  the  county  "  by 
John  Williams,  Samuel  Low,  James  Wilson,  Joseph  Scott  and 
Samuel  Clark.  The  language  of  this  remarkable  document  is 
sad  beyond  comparison. 

It  contains  not  a  suggestion  of  resistance  to  lawful  authority, 
but  is  an  humble  beseeching  appeal  for  the  poor  privilege  of 
laying  before  the  Governor  a  "  full  detail  of  all  their  grievances," 
which,  if  granted  to  them,  as  runs  the  language  of  the  paper, 
"  would  yield  such  alacrity  and  promulgate  such  harmony  in 
poor  pensive  North  Carolina."  *  *  *  Poo?',  pensive  North 
Carolina!  To  what  a  condition  of  dejection  must  a  people 
be  reduced  to  employ  such  language.  The  hand  that  penned 
that  line  may  have  been  one  of  those  laid  forever  cold  and 
motionless  after  the  morrow's  battle.  I  confess  to  a  feeling  of 
unutterable  pity  as  I  think  of  these  men. 

Despairing  of  redress,  about  to  engage  in  a  hopeless  battle, 
the  consequences  of  which  could  only  be  death  on  the  scaffold 
to  the  ringleaders,  and  yet  they  quailed  not.  No  round  rob- 
bin  here  to  escape  individual  responsibility. 

The  petition  is  contemptuously  rejected  ;  the  morrow's  bat- 
tle takes  place  ;  the  defeat  is  sustained  ;  the  leaders  captured, 
carried  in  triumph  to  Hillsboro  ;  tried  by  court-martial ;  twelve 
convicted  and  sentenced  to  be  hung,  and  six  immediately  exe- 
cated. 

One  of  these  victims,  known  as  the  "Rifleman  Pugh,"  when 
placed  under  the  gallows,  asked  permission  to  speak  ;  he  was 
given  a  half  hour. 

He  was  perfectly  calm,  even  dignified  ;  not  a  muscle  quivered. 
He  began  by  saying  that  he  had  long,  as  he  hoped  and  believed, 
been  prepared  to  meet  his  God  ;  that  he  was  not,  therefore,  afraid 


NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  &-€.  I  3 

to  die  ;  that  he  had  no  acknowledgment  of  wrong  to  make,  no 
pardon  to  ask  for  what  he  had  done.  Then  addressing  his  coun- 
trymen he  told  them  that  he  was  sure  his  blood  would  be  as  seed 
sown  on  good  ground,  and  that  ere  long  they  would  see  it  pro- 
duce an  hundred  fold.  He  then  recapitulated  briefly  the  oppres- 
sions of  the  people,  and  the  causes  which  had  led  to  the  conflict, 
asserting  that  the  Regulators  had  taken  the  life  of  no  man  before 
the  battle  commenced,  and  that  they  sought  nothing  more 
than  the  lawful  redress  of  their  grievances. 

He  then  turned  to  the  Governor  and  charged  him  with  hav- 
ing brought  an  army  there  to  murder  the  people  instead  of 
taking  sides  with  them,  as  he  should  have  done,  against  a 
swarm  of  dishonest  ofificets ;  he  advised  him  to  put  away  his 
corrupt  favorites,  and  to  be  the  friend  of  the  people  whom  he 
was  sent  to  govern  ;  "and  here,"  said  he,  pointing  to  Fanning, 
"here  is  one  of  those  favorites,  utterly  unfit  to  be  in  authority 

"     At  these  words,  the  denounced  minion  gave  the  signal, 

and  the  further  fearless  denunciation  was  hushed  in  death 
before  the  allotted  half  hour  had  expired. 

Who  will  be  so  bold  as  to  say,  judging  each  by  his  station 
in  life,  his  opportunities,  his  motives  and  aims,  whether  the 
brilliant,  gifted  and  honored  Robert  Emmet,  expiating  his 
rebellion  against  the  same  government  on  the  scaffold  at  Dub- 
lin twenty-two  years  afterwards  (1803),  or  the  humble,  unedu- 
cated, but  brave  and  pious  Pugh,  hanging  from  the  gal- 
lows on  the  hill  near  Hillsboro,  be  the  greater  patriot.  'Tis 
true  the  latter  did  not  defend  his  cause  with  the  eloquence  and 
pathos  that  marked  Emmet's  appeal  to  the  jury  that  con- 
demned him,  and  no  poet  has  arisen  to  celebrate  Pugh's  death 
in  immortal  verse  ;  but  the  homely  language  of  this  plain  coun- 
try blacksmith,  as  in  sublime  disregard  of  his  immediate  death 
he  denounced  the  Governor  and  the  practices  he  countenanced, 
fill  me  with  inexpressible  admiration  of  this  man's  nobleness 
of  character  and  lofty  patriotism. 


14  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  b^c. 

Thus  and  here  was  the  first  blood  spilled  in  these  United 
States  in  resistance  to  exactions  of  English  rulers  and  oppres- 
sions by  the  English  government.  Says  the  historian  :  "Had 
this  battle  terminated  differently,  the  banks  of  Alamance 
would  be  venerated  as  another  Bunker  Hill,  and  Husbands, 
Merrill  and  others,  ranked  with  the  Warrens  and  patriots  of 
another  day." 

Four  years  after  this  sad  event,  the  Congress  at  Hillsboro 
resolved  "  that  those  participating  in  the  war  of  the  Regula- 
tion ought  not  to  be  punished  for  doing  so,"  and  appointed  a 
committee  to  induce  those  same  Regulators  to  unite  with  the 
Colonial  forces  against  the  mother  country  ;  and  mirabile  dictit ! 
as  members  of  that  committee  we  find  the  Rev.  Mr.  Patillo, 
the  Presbyterian  divine,  who  had  denounced  these  Regulators 
in  a  pastoral  letter  to  his  congregation  ;  David  Caswell,  whose 
bayonets  at  Alamance  had  won  the  battle,  and  Maurice  Moore, 
the  Judge,  who  after  the  battle  had  condemed  the  ringleaders 
and  poor  Pugh  to  be  hung.  Is  further  evidence  necessary  to 
vindicate  the  motives  and  actions  of  these  men  from  the  asper- 
sions and  criticisms  that  have  been  lavished  upon  them?  I 
feel  it  a  privilege,  as  well  as  a  duty,  to  say  this  much  in  defense 
of  a  cause  for  which  these  men  fought  and  died. 

Though  at  the  end  of  the  royal  Government  (1775)  there  were 
but  two  schools  in  the  whole  Province,  those  of  New  Berne  and 
Edenton,  there  must  have  been  at  that  period  many  men  of  edu- 
cation and  literary  attainment  in  North  Carolina.  The  resolves 
of  the  Provincial  Congresses,  the  Provincial  Councils,  the  District 
Committees  of  Safety  and  the  addresses  which  they  published  to 
the  country,  are  so  remarkable'for  the  purity  of  the  language, 
the  simplicity  and  beauty  of  the  style,  and  for  cogency  of 
argument,  as  to  excite  our  wonder,  for  they  cannot  be  sur- 
passed by  the  most  polished  productions  of  any  age.  The 
letter  addressed  to  Gov.  Tryon    by  Judge  Moore  under  the 


NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  Sd'c.  1$ 

signature  ''  Attiats,"  shows  the  master  hand  of  a  Juvenal  or  a 
Junius. 

After  163  years  no  better  plan  for  alleviating  the  depressed 
condition  under  which  agriculture  is  at  present  suffering,  has 
been  suggested  by  the  thinkers  and  statesmen  of  to-day,  than 
was  devised  and  put  in  successful  operation  by  the  General 
Assembly  of  North  Carolina,  in  1727. 

So  successful  was  the  plan  that  it  was  adopted  in  Pennsyl- 
vania and  other  of  the  Provinces,  and  recommended  by  Gov. 
Pownal,  who  had  presided  over  Massachusetts,  South  Caro- 
lina and  New  Jersey,  to  the  mother  country  for  establishment 
in  all  the  Colonies.  Truly  those  men  of  the  old  Colonial  days 
were  the  peers  of  any,  measure  them  by  what  standard  you 
may. 

"The  Colonial  History  of  North  Carolina  shows  a  people 
loyal  and  submissive  to  legal  authority;  bold,  enduring  and 
indomitable  in  resistance  to  illegal  usurpation,  and  this  has 
always  been  their  spirit.  The  spirit  of  the  Revolution  was 
born  in  Colonial  North  Carolina,  and  defiance  of  British 
authority  had  existed  practically  here  one-half  a  century  before 
the  Declaration  of  Independence." 

NORTH  CAROLINA  AND  THE  REVOLUTION. 

As  we  come  to  the  Revolutionary  history  of  North  Carolina 
our  thoughts  instinctively  turn  to  Moore's  Creek,  King's  Moun- 
tain, the  Cowpens  and  Guilford  Court-house. 

It  was  at  Moore's  Creek  (February  22,  1776,)  that  the  first 
conflict  between  the  Colonists  and  the  troops  of  the  mother 
country  took  place  in  North  Carolina.  At  Guilford  Court- 
house (March  15,  1781),  more  than  five  years  thereafter,  the 
last  battle  in  the  State  between  those  forces  was  fought. 

Between  these  events  there  was  won  by  the  Colonists  the 


1 6  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  ^c. 

brilliant  victories  of  Ramsour's  Mill  (June  20,  1780),  King's 
Mountain  (October  7,  1780),  the  Cowpens  (January  17,  1781), 
and  Elizabethtown  (July,  1781). 

The  author  of  the  "Fifteen  Decisive  Battles  of  the  World" 
has  selected  the  battle  of  Saratoga  (October  17,  1777)  as  one 
of  those  turning  points  in  the  world's  history.  Had  the  facts 
about  the  battle  of  King's  Mountain,  and  the  bearing  of  that 
victory  upon  the  subsequent  military  operations  in  the  South, 
been  as  well  ascertained  then  as  they  are  now.  Professor  Creecy 
might  have  hesitated  before  he  selected  Saratoga  rather  than 
King's  Mountain  as  his  illustration.  Had  Ferguson  been  the 
victor,  could  Cornwallis  have  had  him  with  his  eleven  hundred 
men  to  assist  at  Guilford  Court-house,  the  march  to  Yorktown 
might  never  have  been  made,  and  to  day  the  banner  of  Saint 
George  might  be  floating  over  our  heads  rather  than  the  Stars 
and  Stripes. 

The  details  of  this  battle  should  be  with  us  as  household 
words,  for  history  records  no  more  brilliant  military  exploit  in 
all  the  annals  of  modern  warfare  than  the  victory  at  King's 
Mountain. 

A  citizen  of  North  Carolina,  "  convinced  that  great  injustice 
has  been  done  to  the  militia  of  North  Carolina  in  regard  to 
their  conduct  at  the  battle  of  Guilford  Court-house,  resolved, 
as  a  dutiful  son,  to  write  in  defence  of  his  native  State,  and  in 
vindication  of  the  honor  and  patriotism  of  her  people." 

Could  a  more  honorable  duty  devolve  upon  one  ?  Could 
any  one  have  performed  this  duty  in  a  manner  more  patriotic 
and  satisfactory  than  it  has  been  in  this  instance  by  the  Hon. 
David  Schenck,  of  Greensboro? 

Through  the  patriotic  investigations  of  this  distinguished 
North  Carolinian  it  is  now  established,  that  before  the  deadly 
fire  of  that  undisciplined  militia  the  flower  of  the  British  army 
recoiled  in  dismay;  that  one-half  of  the  Highlanders  dropped 
before  them  ;  that  nearly  one-third  of  Webster's  Brigade  was 


NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  6-^.  1/ 

annihilated  in  their  front.  Yes,  men  of  Guilford,  you  more 
than  obeyed  your  orders.  You  fired  your  flint-lock  rifles  twice 
and  continued  to  fire  till  the  Hessians  mounted  the  intervening 
fence,  and  then  you  clubbed  your  v/eapons  and  fought  them 
back  hand  to  hand. 

Had  all  the  troops  on  that  fated  field  served  their  General 
and  their  country  as  did  Eaton's  and  Butler's  North  Carolina 
Militia,  and  Forbis'  Volunteers,  Guilford  Court-house  might 
have  been  a  second  King's  Mountain,  and  to  Greene,  rather  than 
to  Washington,  Cornwallis  surrendered  his  sword. 

As  it  was,  to-day's  victory  is  followed  by  the  morrow's  retreat 
of  the  British  General,  and  not  till  he  reached  the  protection 
of  his  fleet  riding  in  the  waters  of  the  Cape  Fear  did  Corn- 
wallis find  repose  from  the  incessant  attacks  of  the  pursuing 
foe.  Truly  has  it  been  said,  "The  battle  of  Guilford  Court- 
house made  Yorktown  possible." 

One  would  think  such  a  record  as  above  is  glory  enough  for 
a  people.  But  it  may  surprise  some  to  be  told  that  not  alone 
to  her  own  territory  did  North  Carolina  confine  her  efforts  in 
behalf  of  independence. 

When   the    city  of    Boston    was    under    embargo    in    1774, 
and  her  citizens   in    distress,  the    people    of    North    Carolina 
declared  that  "the  cause  of  Boston  is  the  cause  of  all,"  and 
from  Wilmington  and  New  Bern  ships  laden  with  supplies  were- 
sent  as  a  contribution  to  their  brothers  in  want  at  Boston. 

It  was  the  one  thousand  men  from  North  Carolina  under 
Colonel  Robert  Howe  that  enabled  the  Virginians  to  drive 
Governor  Dunmore  out  of  the  State  in  1775  ;  and  another  one 
thousand  men  under  Colonels  Martin,  Polk  and  Rutherford 
were  sent  to  South  Carolina  to  help  put  down  the  Tories  in 
that  State  who  were  too  strong  for  our  Southern  neighbor;  and 
at  Germantown,  in  Pennsylvania,  it  was  Nash  and  his  North 
Carolina  troops  that  saved  the  day  to  the  American  army. 

It  should  not  be  forgotten  that,  as  early  as  April  12,  1776, 


l8  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  &^c. 

the  Congress  at  Halifax  passed  a  resolution  instructing  their 
delegates  in  the  Continental  Congress  at  Philadelphia  "to  con- 
cur with  the  delegates  from  the  other  colonies  in  declaring 
independence;"  and  that  the  Congress  at  Hillsboro  of  August 
the  year  previous  had  raised  two  regiments  of  regulars  and  five 
battalions  of  minute  men,  and  offered  bounties  for  the  manu- 
facture of  munitions  of  war — all  in  preparation  for  the  inevitable 
conflict  with  the  mother  country. 

"At  Mecklenburg  in  May,  1775,  the  people  of  a  county 
talked  independence;  at  Hillsboro  in  August  the  people  of  the 
whole  Province  deliberately  and  resolutely  acted  it ;  and  all 
this  nearly  a  year  prior  to  the  Declaration  of  July  4,  1776." 

WOMEN   OF   THE   REVOLUTION. 

The  wom^en  of  the  Revolution  were  no  less  heroic  and  patri- 
otic than  the  men. 

Mary  Slocumb  rode  all  night  on  horseback  a  distance  of 
sixty  miles  to  join  her  husband  under  Lillington  and  Caswell. 
She  reached  the  battle-field  of  Moore's  Creek  as  the  field  was 
won.  Spending  the  day  in  attending  to  the  wounded,  Whigs 
and  Tories  alike,  at  night-time  she  started  for  home,  and  with- 
out resting  reached  her  destination  next  day,  having  ridden 
one  hundred  and  twenty  miles  in  forty-eight  hours. 

William  Mills  and  his  wife,  Eleanor,  were  living  on  Greene 
River,  now  Rutherford  County.  Their  house  was  surrounded 
by  Indians  several  times,  and  twice  they  were  driven  away. 
At  one  time  the  husband  returned  from  hunting  to  find  his 
house  robbed,  his  wife  gone  and  everything  laid  waste.  Wild 
with  despair  he  commenced  moaning  and  tearing  his  hair, 
when,  like  an  angel,  his  wife  appeared,  unharmed!  As  the 
Indians  entered  the  house  she  crept  out  of  a  small  window  in 
the  garret  and  slid  down  the  chimney,  making  her  way  to  the 
swamp  near  by,  where  she  lay  concealed  till  she  heard  her  hus- 


NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  cs'c.  I9 

band's  voice.  At  another  time  she  escaped  in  a  similar  manner, 
and  when  a  whole  troop  of  Indians  were  ripping  up  feather- 
beds  and  yelling  over  their  plunder,  she  raised  a  shout,  solitary 
and  alone,  in  the  swamp  near  the  house,  "Hurrah  for  King 
George  and  his  army  ! "  with  such  rapidity  and  vehemence  that 
the  whole  herd  of  savages  took  to  their  heels,  and  she,  alone, 
gained  a  bloodless  victory, 

William  Mills  lived  to  his  eighty-eighth  year,  and  left  eighty- 
nine  grandchildren.  At  the  death  of  his  wife,  as  he  walked 
out  by  a  spring  near  the  freshly-made  grave,  he  remarked,  tears 
streaming  o'er  his  furrowed  cheeks,  "I  and  Nelly  drank  upon 
our  knees  at  that  spring  fifty-five  years  ago,  when  there  was  no 
white  man's  foot  in  all  this  country."  The  old  patriarch  died 
in  1834,  and  sleeps  by  the  side  of  his  wife  near  Edneyville, 
Henderson  County. 

NORTH   CAROLINA   AND   THE   UNITED   STATES   CONSTITUTION. 

No  proceeding  in  all  her  history  seems  to  me  more  honorable 
than  the  conduct  of  the  State  when  called  upon  to  adopt  the 
United  States  Constitution. 

Since  the  able  and  exhaustive  addresses  of  Dr.  Battle  and 
Captain  Ashe  at  the  recent  Centennial  Celebration  at  Fayette- 
ville,  nothing  need  be  said  in  elucidation  of  this  part  of  our 
State's  history.  These  gentlemen,  worthy  descendants  of 
noble  revolutionary  sires,  fully  vindicated  the  conduct  of  those 
members  of  the  Hillsboro  Convention  (1788)  who  succeeded  in 
delaying  the  ratification  until  certain  amendments  could  be 
secured.  It  would  seem,  there  was  not  so  much  difference  of 
opinion  as  to  the  necessity  for  certain  amendments  to  the  Con- 
stitution as  submitted — for  all  pretty  much  agreed  as  to  this — 
but  Governor  Johnston,  Judge  Iredell,  General  Davie  and  their 
friends  wished  the  Constitution  should  first  be  adopted  and 
then  the  amendments  could  be  secured  ;  but  Willie  Jones,  Gal- 


20  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  &'c. 

loway,  Spencer,  Battle  and  a  majority  of  the  Convention,  con- 
tended for  the  position  which  Mr,  Jefferson  advised  should  be 
the  action  of  Virginia,  viz.,  that  he  wished  nine  States  would 
adopt  it,  not  because  it  deserved  ratification,  but  to  preserve 
the  Union,  but  he  wished  the  other  four  States  would  reject  it 
that  there  might  be  a  certainty  of  obtaining  amendments. 

That  North  Carolina's  action  was  wise,  subsequent  events 
proved ;  for  the  first  United  States  Congress  had  no  sooner  met 
than  ten  amendments  were  proposed  to  the  several  Legislatures 
for  acceptance^  which  amendments  substantially  embodied 
what  was  contended  for  in  the  Hillsboro  Bill  of  Rights,  and 
thereupon  the  Constitution  was  at  once  ratified  at  Fayetteville, 
on  November  21,  1789.  But,  at  the  same  time,  it  was  imani- 
moiLsly  resolved  that  additional  amendments  should  be  asked, 
and  the  first  of  these  was  in  these  words:  "That  Congress 
shall  not  alter,  modify  or  interfere  in  the  times,  places  and 
manner  of  holding  elections  for  Senators  and  Representatives, 
or  either  of  them,  except  when  the  Legislature  of  any  State 
shall  neglect,  refuse  or  be  disabled  by  invasion  or  rebellion  to 
prescribe  the  same,  or  in  case  when  the  provision  made  by  tb.e 
State  is  so  imperfect  as  that  no  consequent  election  is  had."  In 
the  light  of  certain  legislation  on  this  subject  now  pending  in 
Congress,  was  not  this  resolution  truly  prophetic? 

I  confess  a  profound  admiration  for  these  sturdy  patriots  of 
the  Revolution.  How  nobly  and  persistently  they  fought  in 
council  to  preserve  those  rights  and  liberties  won  in  a  seven 
years'  war.  How  wisely,  with  what  forebodings,  they  discussed 
the  effects  of  the  powers  granted  the  general  government  by 
certain  clauses  in  the  Federal  Constitution.  How  carefully  in 
their  own  State  Constitution  had  they  guarded  those  rights 
and  liberties,  and  limited  the  power  of  the  chief  executive. 

We  can  well  conceive  that  it  was  a  thankless  business  to  fight 
against  the  prestige  of  Washington,  to  oppose  such  men  as 
Governor  Johnston,  Judge  Iredell  and  General  Davie,  but 


NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  ^c.  21 

"  They  were  men,  high-minded  men, 
Who  knew  their  rights,  and  knowing,  dared  maintain." 

It  is  perhaps  well,  in  this  connection,  to  call  attention  to 
these  facts: 

The  Congress  that  adopted  the  State  Constitution  met  at 
Halifax,  November  12,  1776.  On  December  6  the  form  of  the 
Constitution  was  ready  for  adoption,  and  on  the  i8th  the  Con- 
stitution, with  the  Bill  of  Rights,  was  formally  adopted.  This 
Constitution,  with  some  slight  amendments  in  1836,  was  the 
form  of  government  for  our  people  until  the  end  of  the  late  Civil 
War,  nearly  one  hundred  years.  When  adopted  there  was  no 
precedent  for  such  a  system.  It  was  also  conceived  in  the  midst 
of  civil  war;  yet  it  answered  every  purpose  during  the  war  with 
Great  Britain,  during  the  interval  between  peace  and  the  adop- 
tion of  the  United  States  Constitution,  and  was  practically 
unchanged  all  the  years  of  peace  thereafter  and  during  the  late 
Civil  War,  and  afterwards  until  the  strong  arm  of  the  conqueror 
came  in  and  a  new  Constitution  was  adopted  in  1868.  What 
a  marvel  of  human  sagacity  and  statesmanship  in  the  men  of 
those  times!  We  can  but  exclaim  in  the  words  of  another: 
"How  well  North  Carolina  must  have  been  grounded  in  the 
faith  to  have  shown  no  check  in  her  career  when  Hugh  Wad- 
dell  and  James  Moore,  two  of  her  very  best  soldieTs,  and  John 
Harvey,  her  acknowledged  civil  leader,  went  to  the  grave  at 
the  very  outset  of  the  great  struggle,  just  at  the  time  when 
they  were  so  much  needed." 

NORTH    CAROLINA   IN    PEACE    UP   TO    1861. 

As  io  the  character  of  her  people  in  peace,  they  were  plain, 
modest,  conservative,  religious;  free  from  crime,  from  isms, 
from  extreme  poverty  or  wealth  ;  sociable,  kind  and  temperate; 
the  best  society  elegant,  polished  and  liberally  educated;  her 
statesmen    patriotic;   her  judges    incorruptible;    her  domestic 


22  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  b'c. 

institution,  slavery,  was  mild,  and  until  1836,  the  free  negroes 
in  the  State  exercised  equally  with  the  white  citizens  all  the 
rights  of  freemen,  including  that  of  voting. 

NORTH  CAROLINA  IN  THE  LATE  CIVIL  WAR. 

On  April  15,  1861,  Governor  Ellis  received  the  following 
telegraphic  dispatch: 

"War  Department, 
"Washington,  April  15,  1861. 
"  To  Governor  Ellis: 

"Call  made  on  you  by  to-night's  mail  for  two  regiments  of 
military  for  immediate  service. 

"Simon  Cameron, 

^'Secretary  of  War." 

Seldom  have  words  of  such  direful  consequences  been  penned 
by  human  hand. 

True  to  her  traditions,  consistent  with  her  conservatism, 
happy,  prosperous  and  contented,  the  people  of  North  Caro- 
lina were  not  in  favor  of  secession. 

As  late  as  February  28,  1861,  though  her  sister  States  of 
South  Carolina,  Georgia,  Alabama,  Mississippi,  Florida  and 
Louisiana  had  seceded  and  formed  an  Independent  Govern- 
ment, yet  the  people  of  North  Carolina  voted  down  the  call 
for  a  convention  to  consider  even  the  question  of  secession. 
We  sent  two  delegations,  one  to  the  Peace  Convention  at 
Washington  City,  and  one  to  the  Confederate  Congress  at 
Montgomery,  with  instructions  to  each  to  make  a  last  attempt 
for  peace. 

But  in  vain  !  As  the  wires  flashed  the  fatal  message  of  Sec- 
retary of  War  Cameron,  we  can  believe 


NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  ^c.  23 

"  Earth  felt  the  wound,  and  Nature  frona  her  seat, 
Sighing  through  all  her  works,  gave  signs  of  woe, 
That  all  was  lost.  " 

If  a  people  can  ever  lawfully  change  their  form  of  Govern- 
ment, it  is  when  they  act  on  such  a  dread  Resolve  in  conven- 
tion assembled  representing  the  sovereignty  of  the  State. 

It  was  a  convention  called  by  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
State,  that  in  1789  passed  the  ordinance  ratifying  the  United 
States  Constitution. 

It  was  a  convention,  similarly  called,  that  seventy-two  years 
later  passed  the  ordinance  repealing  the  former  one  and  reassum- 
ing  North  Carolina's  sovereignty,  as  a  "  free  and  independent 
State." 

It  can  no  longer  be  questioned  that  it  was  to  the  universal 
belief  among  the  people  of  North  Carolina,  that  the  ordinance 
of  May  20th,  1861 — mark  you,  not  an  ordinance  of  secession, 
but  an  ordinance  of  repeal  and  re-assumption  of  sovereignty — 
was  a  matter  of  necessity  and  an  act  of  self-preservation,  and 
that  it  was  in  all  respects  legal  and  effective,  and  that  the 
citizen's  first  duty  of  allegiance  was  to  his  State,  that  the 
response  to  the  call  of  the  Governor  for  troops  to  defend  their 
borders  against  invasion  met  with  such  marvelous  enthusiasm 
on  the  part  of  the  people. 

Listen  to  the  reply  of  Governor  Ellis  to  Secretary  Cam- 
eron's telegraphic  dispatch,  written  the  same  day. 

"Sir — Your  dispatch  is  received  and,  if  genuine,  which  its 
extraordinary  character  leads  me  to  doubt,  I  have  to  say  in 
reply,  that  I  regard  the  levy  of  troops  made  by  the  adminis- 
tration for  the  purpose  of  subjugating  the  States  of  the  South, 
as  in  violation  of  the  Constitution  and  as  a  gross  usurpation 
of  power.  I  can  be  no  party  to  this  wicked  war  upon  the 
liberties  of  a  free  people.  You  can  get  no  troops  from  North 
Carolina." 


24  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  &c. 

I  question  whether  history  records  a  nobler  protest  against 
usurped  authority  than  this  spontaneous  reply  of  Governor 
Ellis.  As  he  wrote  it  a  mortal  disease  was  sapping  his  life's 
blood  and  soon  thereafter  he  sank  into  the  tomb.  But  who 
would  not  be  content  to  die,  his  last  words  on  earth  breathing 
the  sublime  spirit  of  love  of  liberty  that  was  contained  in  the 
indignant  answer  of  this  devoted  son  of  the  State? 

"  The  words  of  dying  men  enforce  attention  like  deep  harmony  : 
Where  words  are  scarce  they  are  seldom  spent  in  vain, 
For  they  breathe  truth,  who  breathe  their  words  in  pain." 

NORTH   CAROLINA'S    LOSS    IN   THE   LATE   WAR. 

If  North  Carolina  was  slow  to  take  this  step  of  Revolution — 
and  slow  she  ought  to  have  been,  forthe  consequences  she  well 
knew  would  be  momentous — when  the  step  was  taken  there 
was  no  hesitation,  no  looking  back;  and,  as  if  by  magic,  from 
her  distant  territories  across  the  mountains,  from  the  table- 
lands of  the  Piedmont  section,  from  the  low-lands  washed  by 
the  Atlantic,  came  men  crowding  to  the  fray  ;  and  though 
among  the  last  to  join  the  Confederacy,  she  was  among  the 
first  in  the  field  ;  and  was  there  ever  such  a  fight? 

Out  of  a  military  population  of  1 15,000  she  equipped  and 
sent  to  the  field  125,000  fighting  men. 

Of  the  ninety-two  regiments  under  (jeneral  Lee  in  the  seven 
day's  fighting  around  Richmond  in  1S62,  North  Carolina  fur- 
nished forty-six;  and  the  killed  and  wounded  in  the  North 
Carolina  regiments  at  Chancellorsville  constituted  more  than 
half  the  killed  and  wounded  in  the  army  of  Northern  Virginia 
in  that,  battle.  And  so  it  was  from  battle  to  battle,  from 
campaign  to  campaign,  wherever  the  fighting  was  the  fiercest 
and  the  killing  the  deadliest,  North  Carolina  troops  were  in 
the  front. 

And  when  human  endeavor  could  do  no  more,  and  the  last 
supreme  effort  to  save  his  army  was  to  be  made,  its  commander 


NECESS/TY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  c^c.  25 

selected  a  North  Carolina  General  and  North  Carolina  troops 
for  the  desperate  service. 

That  State,  which  was  the  first  to  offer  up  a  soldier's  life  in 
that  fratricidal  war,  now,  after  four  years  of  struggle,  is  to  make 
the  last  charge  and  fire  the  last  shot  as  the  curtain  falls  forever 
on  the  bloody  drama  on  the  field  of  Appomattox. 

Witnessing  this  last,  this  heroic  charge  to  break  the  enemy's 
lines,  made  by  Grimes'  division  of  North  Carolina  troops,  says 
General  Lee,  "God  bless  North  Carolina!"  These  are  the  last 
words  of  military  encomium  pronounced  by  General  Lee  on 
this  his  last  field  of  battle. 

Those  of  us  who  were  privileged  to  be  present  last  week  in 
Richmond,  and  to  participate  in  that  marvellous  tribute  to  the 
dead  hero,  can  bear  witness  that  the  State  that  furnished  most 
soldiers  to  follow  and  guard  him  while  living,  sent  most  of 
those  same  soldiers  to  do  him  honor  when  dead. 

But  again  we  fail  to  get  the  credit  for  what  we  do. 

"Quia  carent  vate  sacro." 

When  we  reflect  that  in  the  Franco- Prussian  war  of  iS/O-'/i, 
one  of  the  greatest  of  European  wars,  the  German  loss  in  killed 
or  died  of  wounds  was  only  3  i-io  per  cent.;  that  in  the  Crimean 
war  the  allied  armies  lost  3  2-10  per  cent.,  and  in  the  war  of 
186^  the  Austrian  army  lost  only  2  6-10  per  cent,  from  the  same 
causes,  and  that  the  total  loss  in  killed,  wounded  and  died 
of  disease  in  the  Union  army  was  8  6-10  per  cent,  of  their 
enrollment  of  2,320,272  men,  we  are  prepared  to  believe  that 
the  fighting  in  our  Civil  War  was  the  most  desperate  of  all 
modern  wars.  But  when  we  ascertain  that  North  Carolina's 
loss  in  that  war  was  over  thirty-five  per  cent,  of  her  entire  mili- 
tary population  of  1 861,  we  may  well  exclaim  in  the  language 
of  a  Northern  writer  (author  of  "Regimental  Losses  in  the 
American  Civil  War"),  "The  result  is  extraordinary  in  its  heroic 


26  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIAIS,  &-c. 

aspect."  It  is  also  established  by  the  same  authority  that  not 
only  do  North  Carolina  troops  head  the  list  on  both  sides  of 
commands  that  sustained  the  greatest  regimental  loss  in  any 
one  battle,  but  also  they  head  the  other  list,  that  of  the  great- 
est percentage  of  loss  sustained  in  any  one  battle ;  and  this  per- 
centage on  the  fatal  field  of  Gettysburg,  in  one  command, 
reached  the  almost  incredible  figures  of  86  3-10  per  cent.,  viz., 
70S  out  of  820  men  carried  into  action. 

RECONSTRUCTION. 

When  the  Congress  at  Hillsboro  (August,  1775,)  proceeded 
to  exercise  every  function  of  government,  and  to  provide  for 
the  impending  struggle  with  the  mother  country,  by  the 
erection  of  what  in  this  day  would  be  styled  a  provisional  gov- 
ernment, they  felt  called  upon  to  give  to  the  world  a  reason 
for  a  proceeding  so  extraordinary  and  revolutionary.  They 
declared  that  there  was  "a  silence  of  the  legislative  powers  of 
government  in  North  Carolina."  This  excuse  was  doubtless 
the  best  that  could  be  given  at  the  time,  and  served  as  a  rally- 
ing cry  for  the  Revolutionists,  but  it  was  almost  sublime  in  its 
impudence,  for  at  the  time  the  Royal  Governor  was  actually  in 
the  Province,  and  fulminating  his  proclamations  from  aboard 
the  British  man-of-war  in  the  Cape  Fear. 

It  was  reserved  for  the  days  of  reconstruction  when  a  saying 
equally  as  famous  in  our  day  became  current  as  the  other  was 
one  hundred  years  ago  ;  but  a  saying  ominous  to  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  ear,  and  one  sounding  a  death-knell  to  the  liberty  of  the 
citizen.  "  The  judiciary  is  exhausted,"  said  the  highest  judicial 
officer  in  North  Carolina.  Fortunately  for  the  State,  in  this 
he  was  mistaken.  Another  high  judicial  of^cer,  disregarding 
all  consequences  personal  to  himself,  and  against  the  protest  of 
the  Governor  to  whose  recommendation  he  owed  his  office, 
ordered  the  Sacred  Writ  to  issue,  and  the  parties  unlawfully 


NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  &^c.  2/ 

distrained  of  their  liberties  to  be  brought  before  him.  And 
again,  and  we  hope  forever,  was  there  saved  to  the  State  the 
liberties  of  her  citizens,  and  the  Constitution  of  their  fathers. 

To  no  one  person  in  all  their  history  are  the  people  under 
greater  obligations  for  a  single  exercise  of  judicial  power 
than  to  this  inflexible  Judge  of  the  United  States  District 
Court  of  North  Carolina,  the  late  Hon.  George  W.  Brooks. 

Seldom  has  it  been  the  fortune  of  a  people  to  merit  such  an 
occasion.  Happy  is  the  people  who  can  furnish  the  man  who, 
at  such  a  crisis,  fearlessly  comes  uj)  to  the  full  measure  of  a 
patriot,  and  does  a  deed  that  should  go  sounding  down  the 
ages.  What  State  in  the  American  Union  can  point  to  an 
event  so  honorable  in  the  life  of  one  of  her  judges  as  we  can  in 
North  Carolina  in  telling  of  Judge  Brooks'  fearless  conduct  in 
this  "epochal  hour  and  time  of  crisis." 

Let  the  people  of  North  Carolina  delay  no  longer  to  erect  a 
monument  in  honor  of  this  Federal  Judge  "who  dared  to  do 
right,  and  to  discharge  his  duty  in  the  face  of  personal  sacrifice 
and  perhaps  danger;  and  at  a  time  of  great  darkness;  when  an 
awful  calamity  rested  upon  them  ;  and  clouds  hung  lowering 
and  black  in  the  political  heavens."  Such  a  monument  should 
have  inscribed  these  lines: 

"  Justum  et  tenacem  propositi  virum 
Non  civium  ardor  prava  jubentium, 
Non  voltus  instantis  tyranni 
RIente  quatit  solida.  *   *   * 
Si  fractus  illabatur  orbis 
Impavidum  ferient  ruinae." 

THE   NEED   OF   A   CHAIR   OF   HISTORY. 

In  an  address  before  Cornell  University,  June  21,  1871,  Pro- 
fessor D.  C.  Oilman,  now  President  of  The  Johns  Hopkins 
University,  said  :   "  It  will  be  a  curious  inquiry  for  some  philo- 


28  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  b^c. 

sophical  writer  on  the  intellectual  progress  of  this  country  to 
ascertain  what  were  tha  themes,  the  text-books,  the  methods 
of  instruction  and  tuition  which  prevailed  in  the  American 
colleges  prior  to  the  Revolution  ;  what  sort  of  instruction  at 
Cambridge  filled  Samuel  and  John  Adams  with  their  notions 
of  civil  liberty  ;  what  sort  of  culture  at  New  Haven  brought 
Jonathan  Edwards  to  his  lofty  rank  among  the  theologians  of 
this  country  and  of  Scotland  ;  what  discipline  at  Princeton 
fitted  James  Madison  to  exfert  such  influences  upon  the  forma- 
tion of  the  Constitution,  and  what  academic  drill  at  Columbia 
College  made  Alexander  Hamilton  the  founder  of  our  national 
credit  and  our  financial  system." 

Though  Columbia  College  claims  the  honor  of  being  the 
first  American  institution  to  recognize  History  as  worthy  of  a 
professional  chair,  and  in  [8(7  appointed  the  Rev.  John 
McVickar  Professor  of  Philosophy,  Rhetoric'  and  Bellcs-Let- 
tres,  who,  under  the  broad  £egis  of  a  philosophical  professor- 
ship, protected  and  encouraged  historico-political  studies,  yet  it 
was  not  until  1839  that  the  first  distinctive  endowment  of  a 
Chair  of  History  in  any  American  college  was  made.  This 
was  done  by  Harvard,  and  it  led  the  way  to  the  recognition 
of  History  as  worthy  of  an  independent  chair  in  all  our  higher 
institutions  of  learning. 

In  1855,  Michigan  University  instituted  a  department  of 
History  and  English  Literature. 

Yale  had  no  historical  professorship  until  1865. 

In  1857,  Columbia  College,  New  York,  called  Dr.  Eraiicis 
Lieber  from  Columbia  College,  South  Carolina,  to  its  new  Pro- 
fessorship of  History  and  Political  Science. 

This  call  of  Dr.  Lieber  marks  the  first  recognition  by  a 
Northern  college  of  History  and  Politics  as  co-ordinate  sciences. 
This  combination  would  seem  to  be  the  best.  History  is  past 
politics,  and  politics  is  present  history.  History  is  primarily 
the  experience  of  man  in  organized  societies;  political  science 


NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  &-c.  2g 

is  the  application  of  this  historical  experience  to  the  existing 
problems  of  an  ever-progressive  society.  History  and  politics 
are  as  inseparable  as  past  and  present. 

Almost  every  institution  for  the  higher  education  now  has 
courses  in  American  history,  and  it  is  not  a  pleasant  reflection 
for  us,  that,  in  a  list  embracing  some  fifty  colleges  in  the  United 
States  showing  the  principal  facts  relating  to  the  study  of 
history  in  American  colleges  and  universities,  the  University 
of  North  Carolina  is  not  mentioned. 

THE   STATE   UNIVERSITY   THE    PLACE   FOR   IT. 

An  adequate  foundation  for  the  prosecution  of  studies  in 
American  institutions  can  only  be  made  at  the  University.  It 
is  not  called  for  in  schools  below  that  rank.  History  has  be- 
come a  technical  study  and  it  must  be  pursued  as  such.  The 
tendency  of  the  educational  work  of  to-day  is  towards  speciali- 
zation. Technical  instruction  is  the  only  instruction  that 
counts  in  this  world ;  general  information  has  little,  if  any, 
value  compared  with  it;  everything  about  something,  not 
something  about  everything,  is  the  desideratum  in  education. 
When  President  White,  who  had  been  President  of  the  Uni- 
versity of  Michigan,  became  President  of  Cornell,  he  selected 
the  Chair  of  History.  Says  a  recent  writer:  "  If  there  is  one 
idea  which  President  White  has  represented  more  strongly 
than  any  other  at  Cornell  University,  it  is  the  idea  of  educa- 
ting the  American  youth  in  History  and  Political  Science. 
This  is  and  has  always  been  the  leading  idea  of  his  life." 

History  is  simply  the  record  of  human  experience,  whether 
in  physics,  politics,  economics,  ethics  or  education. 

The  leading  idea  in  the  great  University  of  Michigan  now 
is  that  it  should  be  the  head  of  the  public  school  system  of  the 
States.  It  was  not  until  1852,  when  Dr.  Tappan  became  its 
President   and    announced    in   his   inaugural   address  that  the 


30  NECESSITY  OF  PRESERVING  MEMORIALS,  Ss'c. 

University  of  Michigan  should  be  the  roof  and  crown  of  the 
State's  system  of  education,  that  a  new  era  was  marked  in  the 
history  of  that  institution.  He  there  first  suggested  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  distinct  Professorship  in  History  and  PoUtical 
Economy. 

As  late  as  1871  President  White  said:  "  It  is  a  curious  fact, 
and  one  not  very  creditable  to  our  nation,  that  at  present  if 
any  person  wishes  to  hear  a  full  and  thorough  course  of  lec- 
tures on  the  history  of  this  country  he  must  go  to  Paris  or 
Berlin  for  it." 

We,  in  North  Carolina,  have  had  historians,  but  our  history 
is  yet  to  be  written.  The  history  of  our  State  must  be  justly 
written,  published  to  the  world  and  transmitted  to  posterity, 
in  order  that  our  own  character  and  that  of  our  ancestors  may 
be  vindicated  from  calumny,  and  may  endure  as  a  priceless 
heritage  for  the  youth  of  future  generations. 

This  work  must  be  done  at  the  University  of  the  State, 
around  which  cluster  the  glories  of  a  century,  and  where  the 
State  must  look  for  its  freest,  loftiest  and  noblest  culture  in 
literature,  science  and  art. 

Here,  in  this  vast  building,  erected  by  the  patriotism  of  the 
people,  dedicated  to  greta  purposes;  in  the  presence  of  this 
large  assembly  of  the  noblest  and  best,  of  the  beauty  and  wit 
of  our  land ;  yes !  in  the  presence  of  the  mighty  dead,  whose  spirits 
we  invoke  on  this  solemn  occasion,  we  will  one  and  all  resolve 
that  the  memorials  of  their  glories  shall  be  gathered,  and  let 
the  honor  of  leading  in  this  movement  belong  to  the  Aluimii 
of  the  University. 


